Jellaby Going Out of Print

On his blog, Kean Soo, author of the webcomic and graphic novel series Jellaby, has posted that

[T]he first volume of Jellaby will not remain in print. This means that it will becoming increasingly difficult to find copies of Jellaby in the more traditional retail outlets like book or comic stores.

It’s the story of Portia and Jason, two kids with the big purple monster Jellaby as their friend. Jellaby 1 came out February 2008, with the second book released April 2009. The two books together make one big story, so if you’re curious, now is the time to find a copy of the first volume. (The Amazon used prices are already becoming ridiculous.) A planned third book will not happen.

Update: I’m not sure why the confusion is so widespread — perhaps my writeup wasn’t clear — but note that the second book came out last year. So those reporting that the first book is going out of print before book two is published: that’s not the case.

Soo continues his explanation:

This decision was wholly out of my hands. It was, I presume, a financial decision on the part of my publisher, Disney-Hyperion, even though the book has been a modest success by comic standards (more than 18,000 copies sold over the span of 21 months), and had been slowly picking up readers as time went on. Having Jellaby off the shelves does create an unfortunate situation, however — the second book, Jellaby: Monster in the City, is the conclusion of the story that runs through both books, and by removing the availability of the first book, Monster in the City is in danger of leading a shortened life as well, being a now- incomplete second half to a two-part story.

One can only guess at the publisher’s decision-making process, but I did find it interesting that he revealed sales numbers. Does this indicate different expectations between comic publishers and publishers of children’s books?